THE GRUDGE unrated!

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romanD
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THE GRUDGE unrated!

#1 Post by romanD »

now that is great... found this at Fangoria:

Fango got an advance look at and listen to the DVD of Takashi Shimizu’s THE GRUDGE, due February 1 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and on the filmmakers/cast commentary track, producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert reveal that a disc of an unrated, more extreme version of the film will be coming out later this year. This edition, they reveal, will include scenes trimmed for the PG-13 rating, including moments involving child endangerment and at least one very cool-sounding setpiece (which we won’t spoil here). This cut may also eliminate a scene or two in THE GRUDGE designed to explain the supernatural concepts to American audiences. Sony Pictures has yet to officially announce this DVD, but we’ll keep you posted

so, again they try to milk us with this movie. I don't know why this movie has to be more extreme??? The Japanese original wasn't bloody, either... it works well the way it is. I don't need to see what the ghost does to the people in the end... you have that one scene with the girl on the... oh, wait, I won't spoil it...

but apart from that for me the movie is fine.

Would have been scared to death if I hadn't seen the Japanese version some time ago. It is pretty much the same, except the Bill Pullman scenes and the ending... it was ok, but I thought the ending in the original had some more punch, but apparently not many people really understood it...

anyway... check this movie out, if you haven't so far! It's better than the Japanese in the end, because of the budget... too many things looked just cheap and silly in the low-budget Japanese version.

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AndyDursin
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#2 Post by AndyDursin »

I read that also about the scenes "designed to tell [stupid] Americans about supernatural concepts" -- which I find utterly ludicrous. So they mean Western audiences actually demand a STORY and plot that has some kind of depth to it?? :roll: At least Western ghost stories usually have some kind of point or story or moral behind them.

THE GRUDGE needed at least a DOZEN additional scenes of exposition, because having watched it tonight, I found it completely disposable and tedious to a fault. There's NO story in the film at all. No developed characters. Just a bunch of scare scenes (that THE RING did far better) stringed together with creepy music and effects. What a bore, to be honest -- and what was the point of it all? That someone dies a violent death and then decides to kill everybody (even innocent victims) that had nothing to do with their murders? What about the blaming the spirit responsible for the crime or something?

I kept asking myself those questions right down to the dreary climax and laughable, so-predictable coda, which -- surprise! -- didn't answer anything but set it all up for another sequel. Ho hum.

I must be missing something with Japanese horror because they all have the same motifs repeated and not a whole lot of subtext to them: vengeance, restless spirits, lots of water imagry, etc etc. DARK WATER (which is being remade with Jennifer Connelly) was OK, THE RING was actually improved in its US version, but THE GRUDGE is just as forgettable as JU-ON and bored me to tears.

Neo Rasa
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#3 Post by Neo Rasa »

There's this PS2/X-Box video game called Fatal Frame that was developed by Tecmo and based on an actual multiple kidnapping/murder that was performed by these psychopathic Shinto cultists.

It's the scariest, creepiest, most well paced horror story to come out of Japan in my life time, and I've seen a lot of horror movies and read a lot of books. It's a shame the actual films they put out now can't even remotely measure and, in my opinion, fall into cliche traps even worse than a lot off Hollywood movies (though horror in general has been in a slump for so long).

If you haven't yet, you might want to check out Onibaba, I know Criterion released it here not too long ago so it should be easy to find to rent/buy wherever. Worth looking into.

I think the problem a lot of western audiences have with Japanese horror is that so many of them have a premise or a setting instead of an actual story to tell. This is done so that the viewer can be free to interperate the concepts of the movie in their own way, but at the same time, many Japanese movies today use the structure as an exscuse to slap a bunch of scenes together and call it a movie.

romanD
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#4 Post by romanD »

I agree with you Andy... THE GRUDGE doesn't have a story... but for me the movie worked nevertheless. I found it actually quite interesting to have a movie without a story, told with time jumps, having no solution to the ongoings and it still works (for me)... the movie has just this premise and then you see 10 little stories and they ususally scare most people to death (the audience with me screamed and was scared to tears... I wouldn't go so far for myself, but I still liked it a lot). But I can understand if somebody doesn't like the movie at all. Have you seen the Original Version? The Japanese version explains even less than the US-version and I thought that makes it even creepier, especially with the nice coda, which was much better than the US-ending.

RING is for sure a superior movie than this (and its Japanese version), but still I like it as kind of an experiment, which apparently works as in Japan there are now 5 versions of this movie (all by the same director) and we get an US-sequel. Haven't seen any of the other versions, but I heard the don't explain any more, again, just one scare set up after the other. And I don't need an unrated version whcih explains more to me... there is an evil spirit in the house and it kills everyone, what's left to be explained? Interestingly, they left the main evil spirit out of the US-version, which I didn't understand as that culprit started it all... hmmmmmmmm...

anyway, it is probably a love it/hate it movie...

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AndyDursin
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#5 Post by AndyDursin »

Neo -- good point on FATAL FRAME. I actually have it for Xbox but have yet to play it (someday!), and I think you're totally dead on about the concepts of Japanese cinematic horror. They do, as you said, fall into their own trap, though on the other hand, I applaud their general lack of gore and attempt to put their own atmospheric stamp on the genre.

Roman -- I don't know why THE GRUDGE irritated me so much. I agree parts of it were stylish, and I did see the Japanese JU-ON, which I didn't much care for, either (and made even less sense). This time, though, there really was nothing to go on -- and why is it every Japanese horror movie ghost is a crazy female with long, long black hair that flows like tentacles (RING and DARK WATER have exactly the same issue)?

I just didn't find it scary...and while I appreciate a movie that doesn't fill in all the gaps, it's just too ambiguous for my taste. Basically it's like any other horror film, but with less development -- you come in contact with the ghosts, and then they come after you and die. End of story. At least THE RING had more mystery to it, more of a plot (in both versions; and the U.S. version did, for a change, offer additional development and scares).

DARK WATER is my favorite Japanese horror film of late -- in a similar vein to THE RING (I believe it's from the same director), but with some unbelievably creepy atmosphere and tension. Unfortunately the ending was very strange and unsatisfying, though again, it may be a "regional" conclusion that may make sense if you understand Japanese beliefs and culture. Unfortunately, I get the feeling the American remake will concentrate on all the wrong issues, though the potential is there for a good movie.

THE RING was pretty good in its original Japanese version, but I did like the U.S. remake better.

In Japan, you're right, there are a ton of sequels -- including THE SPIRAL, which I believe was intended to be a semi-sequel but was so poorly received they produced an "official" follow-up, RINGU 2, some time after the fact. I never saw "Spiral" but the "official" RINGU 2 was awful, a really tedious movie that offered none of the original's tension. I also saw the third movie (RINGU 0, I believe) which was a prequel and a bit more interesting but still not very satisfying. Needless to say, I hope the U.S. sequel is an improvement on the Japanese follow-ups.

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AndyDursin
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#6 Post by AndyDursin »

I just checked and IMDB lists "Ring"/"Dark Water" director Hideo Nakata as being the director of an American remake of........THE ENTITY!

A good choice for that movie, though I hope it's better than the original, which I coincidentally watched last summer for the first time. Pretty graphic and disturbing, but not very satisfying (and the ending was awful).

I hope Nakata injects some ambiguity into the story, because in the "real" story, the woman in question suffered from some medical conditions and as such the whole story is looked at as a possible hoax. Might be interesting to inject some of that into the story so it's not just a typical ghost story (and a violent one at that!).

romanD
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#7 Post by romanD »

oh my.. they do a remake o THE ENTITY? haven't seen it in years, but with good effects that can be a good remake... and I always a ghost story, where there it is up to you to decide whether there were real ghosts or just the imagination... BELOW made that pay off very well in my opinion.

so, what is left there rom the 70ies for a remake? They do THE BLOB (yeaaaaahhh!!!!), THE FLY, THE FOG, THE ENTITY...

gimme a remake of THE HITCHER...

romanD
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#8 Post by romanD »

just saw Ju-On 2 and that was really, really good. I was really surprised! As I said I hated the japanese RING and the japanese JU-On was ok, but suffered from its budget. This time there is a little bit more story, though still the jumps in time and some other quite effective, weird story telling devices, which makes it sometimes tough to follow... it doesn't have as many characters this time, which is good and therefor there is more time to develop them, as far as that is necessary for this kind of movie. The first shock scenes comes not before the 30 minutes mark, but whoa, that scared the **** out of me... same goes for the attack of the wig (Im serious! sounds stupid, but was scary!)... it all builds up to a really great climax at a hospital and a creepy coda... :-)

I thought the US-GRUDGE would have borrowed some scenes from this movie, too, but it didn't. Sam Raimi said, that for the sequel they have their own story and won't remake JU-ON 2. Well, we'll see what they have in mind, but I thought this story is already pretty good and would be perfect for a Hollywood-remake... as far as I can tell from the trailer for RING 2 it seems as if the makers of that remake borrowed quite a lot from Ju-On 2... oh well, white female ghost with black hair everywhere...

so if you remotely liked the first Ju-On check this out.. this is much better and really scary... :D

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